Edgar Allan Poe/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. A raven with a letter in its mouth stands on the head of Moby. Tim points at the raven. He is wearing a suit and a tie. They are in a very dark room. TIM: Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door. Quoth the raven… MOBY: Beep. Moby turns the light on. He has no head. The raven flies down and lands on Tim's shoulder. He gives Tim a letter. Moby puts his head back on. TIM: Still creepy. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, my class is reading poems from a guy named Edgar Allan Poe. Who is he? From, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe was a nineteenth century American author who wore many heads; uh, uh, hats. He was a magazine editor, literary critic, novelist, and of course, a poet. But he's best known for his short tales of Gothic horror. An image shows Edgar Allan Poe. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's a genre of fiction defined by gloomy settings, supernatural events, and dark mysteries. TIM: Gothic stories often take place in spooky settings, like old castles or dark forests. And the characters tend to be, well, a bit odd and scary. An animation shows a mansion at night in a thunderstorm. Lights shine brightly in the windows. A hooded figure, dressed in black and holding a shovel, appears in front of the mansion when lightning strikes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Poe didn't invent Gothic literature, but he was one of the first writers to treat it seriously. Beyond thrilling readers, his stories explore complex themes like grief, guilt, mortality, jealousy, and love. Take "The Fall of the House of Usher." An image shows a large house at night. It has a few cracks showing on the upper floor and roof. It's labeled ''The Fall of the House of Usher (1839). '''TIM:' The narrator describes his visit to the home of Roderick Usher, a man suffering from an unknown disease and haunted by a sense of impending doom. An image shows Roderick Usher, the owner of the house. TIM: During the narrator's visit, Usher's twin sister Madeline dies, and the two men seal her body in a vault beneath the house. An image shows Usher's twin sister, Madeline, in a coffin. TIM: But one stormy night, Madeline escapes; they had buried her alive! An image shows Madeline escaping from the house. Moby's head pops off and he holds it in his arms. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You're telling me. The setting, characters, and plot all come together to create a truly frightening atmosphere. But there's also a lot going on beneath the surface. The house itself is a character, with windows that are "vacant" and "eye-like," probably symbolizing Usher himself. Early on, the narrator describes a crack in the side of the house, which mirrors Usher's crumbling health and descent into madness. The house's decay and final collapse are powerful reminders of the certainty of death. An animation shows the House of Usher breaking apart and collapsing into a pile of dust. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, death also plays a role in "The Tell-Tale Heart." The narrator in this short story confesses to murdering an old man because he couldn't stand the sight of his pale, vulture-like wings. A label reads: The Tell-Tale Heart (1843). An image shows an old man with a glowing pale blue glass eye sleeping in bed. His other eye is closed. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Of course it sounds crazy. That's exactly the point. Many of Poe's characters are insane, though this one tries to prove his sanity by bragging about how carefully he planned out the murder. He also claims to suffer from a disease that sharpens his senses, which turns out to be his undoing. A hand is shown opening the door to the room where the old man is sleeping. TIM: After killing the old man and hiding his body under the floor of his room, the narrator can still hear the beating of his victim's heart. Side by side images show the old man with a frightened look on his face facing his killer and an empty space under a wooden floorboard. The sound of a heartbeat is heard. TIM: Maybe the heartbeat was just the sound of insects in the walls. Or maybe the narrator imagined the heartbeat out of guilt for the terrible crime he committed. Poe leaves it up to you to decide. RAVEN: Caw. TIM: Ok, ok, I was just getting to you. TIM: Poe's childhood hero was the British Poet Lord Byron, so he actually grew up wanting to be a poet. But none of his poems got much attention until late in his career when he published "The Raven." An image shows Lord Byron. MOBY: Beep. A label reads: The Raven (1845). TIM: Well, the poem has a musical quality, thanks to a catchy rhyme scheme. Tim is sitting in a red armchair in room with a red carpet and red wallpaper, a fireplace, and many books and portraits. He is dressed in a red jacket, and reading from ''The Raven as the words scroll across the screen.'' TIM: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious, volume of forgotten lore. While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." Alliteration, the repeating of first syllable sounds, adds to the poem's rhythmic quality. RAVEN: Caw. TIM: Right, it also has plenty of the Gothic elements you expect from Poe, starting with the raven itself. In some folklore, a raven is a symbol of the afterlife, which fits perfectly with the poem's theme of lost love. The raven flies into the narrator's study while he's mourning the death of his beloved, Lenore. Perched above the door, it pokes at the narrator's grief by repeating one word over and over: "Nevermore." An image shows a raven perched above Tim in a dark room. Tim is pretending to be the narrator in the poem. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, you'd think Poe must have led a tragic life to write all this stuff. But in truth, he experienced his share of tragedy and triumph. TIM: As a writer, he achieved great fame and popularity during his lifetime. An image shows Poe in a bookstore. He is signing a book with a quill pen while a man next to him holds a large stack of his books. TIM: He enjoyed a happy marriage, and even wrote the poem "Eulalie" as a celebration of romantic love. An image shows Poe with his wife. TIM: His wife's chronic sickness and early death may have influenced his dark fiction, though. An image shows Poe at a cemetery with his head in his hands. He is sitting in front of a tombstone that reads R.I.P. TIM: Still, if you look at Poe's whole body of work, it wasn't all gloom and doom. He wrote humorous articles, including a fake news story about hot air balloons that's considered an early example of science fiction. An image shows a man with a telescope in a hot air balloon. TIM: He's also credited with inventing the modern detective story almost fifty years before Sherlock Holmes solved his first mystery. An image shows a man in a suit and hat wearing gloves and looking at a strand of hair through a magnifying glass. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Unfortunately, Poe's career came to an early end when he died in 1849. The cause of his death remains a mystery to this day, but his impact is clear. As a pioneer of the short story, he influenced pretty much anyone who later wrote in that form. As a master of Gothic horror, his reach extends beyond literature and into popular culture. An image shows a picture of Poe at the bottom of a tree trunk. Higher up on the tree trunk are the faces of other famous writers including Stephen King. Then more images appear of actors, Alfred Hitchcock, and a Gothic character. TIM: His fiction and poems have been adapted many times for television, movies, and theater. And of course, they're still widely read in classrooms everywhere. Moby's head pops off. He holds it in his hands. TIM: Nevermore, Moby. Nevermore.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts